Regina Brett urges Clinic to take an anti-smoking stand

Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett today took the Cleveland Clinic to task for waffling between taking the lead on smoking prevention and its friendship with the governor.

"The money the governor wants to grab was designated to help smokers quit and keep people from starting," she writes today. "The future of those programs isn't the only thing at stake. The very lives of Ohioans are. And so is the credibility of those afraid to speak up to save them."

It's Brett's second column in a week about the battle over Ohio's tobacco settlement money. Last week, she urged the governor to take Dr. Michael Roizen's advice and keep the settlement money with the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, instead of using it for a jobs program.

The state and tobacco foundation appear in court Thursday.

Today, she got the first word from Roizen since he called the governor "stupid" over the plan to raid almost all of the $270 million in tobacco money.

This week, Roizen risked talking to me to say he understands the governor's quest to create jobs but pointed out tobacco use costs businesses and government nearly $6,500 per smoker a year in health care and productivity. Reduce smoking and you lower the cost of doing business in Ohio, he said.

Roizen wants to see smoking wiped out the same way polio was. He believes it can be if people combine nicotine replacement, anti-craving medication and behavioral changes. But too many Ohioans lack health insurance to cover all three.

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